Toast Peru with a pisco sour

Susan Semenak, THE GAZETTE04.17.2013

Martin Oré, the Peruvian-born chef and co-owner of Mochica Restaurant: “If I’ve had a big day at work, I’ll have a pisco sour when it’s all over, just to relax.” The aromatic grape brandy is mixed with lime juice, sugar syrup and egg white.Marie-France Coallier

An assortment of Peruvian piscos, available at the St-Denis St. restaurant Mochica and many SAQ outlets.Marie-France Coallier

The drink ranges from pisco puro made from quebranta grapes to a less-expensive blend called pisco acholado that is great for making cocktails.Marie-France Coallier

The Mexicans add some chili heat to their beer for a Bloody Mary-like concoction

MONTREAL - The exhibition of Peruvian art and archeology at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts features magnificent treasures made of silver and gold, some of them thousands of years old and never before seen outside of Peru.

But there’s another more temporal classic worth seeking out amid the wealth of Peruvian art, culture, music and food that is being celebrated while the show is on. It’s pisco, the inimitable and highly aromatic grape brandy that is one of Peru’s fastest-growing exports and the subject of a tasting class at the museum on Thursday.

The pisco sour, a sweet-tart frothy cocktail that features pisco, lime juice, sugar syrup and egg white, is the Peruvian national cocktail, a drink so popular that on Independence Day, they fill a fountain with it in at least one neighbourhood in the capital, Lima.

Martin Oré, the Peruvian-born chef and co-owner of Mochica Restaurant on St-Denis St., says pisco is an invitation to celebrate, a reason to relax. Partly, it’s the fact that pisco packs a punch, with an alcohol content that ranges from 40 to 44 per cent. Mostly, though, it’s pisco’s beguilingly complex mix of sweet, aromatic flavours. And the mood that goes with it.

“Back in Peru, no happy event ever happens without a pisco sour. It’s an instant party, a link between friends,” says Oré, seated in his chef’s whites in the warmly decorated dining room of Mochica, where we are sipping pisco sours with co-owner Claude Pateain, just before the supper rush begins.

“In Peru, when the weather gets warm, it’s time for pisco sours at the beach, maybe with ceviche. Here in Montreal, if I’ve had a big day at work, I’ll have a pisco sour when it’s all over, just to relax. In the evening at home, I might pour myself a pisco puro that I keep cold in the fridge, to sip.”

Pisco goes way back in Peru (and in Chile, which also lays claim to the drink.) When the Spanish arrived in South America in the 1500s, they brought muscat, muscatel and torontel grapes from the Canary Islands. The conquistadors had no taste for the local alcohol chicha, which was made from corn fermented in cone-shaped casks called piscu. Their imported grape vines did so well in Peru’s fertile soil, under its hot sun, that they soon had more grapes than they could turn into wine. So they began fermenting the grape juice and aging it in the clay casks before distilling it in copper stills and then aged at least three months. And that’s how pisco was born.

When Christopher Columbus brought a sample back to Queen Isabella, she instantly fell under its spell and made it her new royal drink, replacing sherry. All these centuries later, pisco is no longer a drink reserved for the bourgeoisie. Oré says a decade-old campaign by the Peruvian government to increase pisco production and consumption has succeeded in making it the national drink, outstripping the traditional corn-based chicha in popularity, and making it one of the country’s largest exports.

Pisco is a lot like grappa, the Italian eau de vie made with grape must. The difference is that in pisco production, the grapes themselves are fermented, which is why the resulting alcohol is so floral and aromatic. And unlike grappa, pisco is never diluted, but bottled at distillation strength. Oré says there are 20-year-old pisco puros made from quebranta grapes that can rival the finest spirits anywhere in terms of flavour, finish and quality, but also less-expensive blends called pisco acholado that are great for making cocktails.

Pisco is a perfect base for many summertime cocktails. After pisco sour, the next bestselling cocktail at Mochica is the pisco ginger sour, which features a teaspoon of finely grated fresh ginger instead of lime juice. They also serve a kind of pisco kir: equal parts pisco and white grape juice. Then there’s the piscola, which mixes pisco and cola with a wedge of lime.

“It’s hard to believe that when we first opened the restaurant nine years ago, it seemed that no one here had ever heard of pisco,” Oré said.

Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon is at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1380 Sherbrooke St. W., until June 16. As part of the ongoing activities, workshops and concerts related to the show, the museum is holding a pisco tasting (in English and French) at 7 p.m. on Thursday. For information or to reserve, go to the museum’s website www.mbam.qc.ca or call 514-285-2000.

The Société des alcools stocks at least six different piscos, among them Demonio de los Andes, a blended pisco acholado that is great for cocktails (it costs $27 for a 700 mL bottle) and Vista Alegre Picasso, a pisco puro that sells for $67 for a 750 mL bottle.

Or head to Mochica Restaurant, where co-owner and bartender Claude Petain will shake up a pisco sour while chef Martin Oré prepares a traditional Peruvian dinner to follow. Mochica is at 3863 St. Denis St. (near Duluth Ave.), 514-284-4448, restaurantmochica.com.

Pisco Sour

Makes 1 drink

3 ounces pisco

1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

1 ounce sugar syrup*

1/2 cup ice

1/2 teaspoon egg white

Dash of Angostura bitters

Whir pisco, lime juice, sugar syrup and ice in a blender until slushy. Add egg white and blend again briefly, until frothy. Pour into a lowball or martini glass and serve with a dash of Angostura bitters.

*To make sugar syrup: Combine 1 cup sugar and ½ cup of water in a small saucepan. Heat, stirring, until dissolved. Cool, then store refrigerated in a tightly sealed jar until ready to use.

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